Alarms rang through the early morning, blaring from the Chicken Palace’s speakers as a state of emergency was declared. Reports had filtered down from Portland Command: An army of super mutants was marching on them from the South. Not much more was said, grunts like Alex didn’t need to know every little detail, but she found that the things she didn’t know made her the most uneasy.
Alex climbed onto the back of a rusted scrap truck and strapped herself tightly into a seat on the truck bed, with Iverson taking his seat beside her. The vehicle swayed into motion, accelerating down a road cleared of any obstacles, and the world around passed by. Alex had never been on such a vehicle, not even in Chicago, strapped onto the truck bed the way packs of junk might be strapped onto a brahmin. The contents of her breakfast threatened to come back up, but she forced it down.
Some distance behind the truck, the bicycle troops garrisoned on Hayden Island cycled after them. Their pace was steady, their bikes faster than walking, but they lagged behind and disappeared. Before long, the old control towers of Portland’s airport entered into view.
In a few minutes, the truck rolled a distance that might’ve taken an hour for a knight to march on foot. It would’ve been an exciting prospect, but as the scrap truck passed columns of marching initiates, Alex saw that the Brotherhood was scraping together every rifle it had for a fight. The idea made her uneasy, which was compounded by the desperate speed that ferried her south. Alex crossed her arms and let her head hang while she shut her eyes to the world. She was better off not thinking about it.
“Out of the truck!” A woman’s voice yelled and Alex startled awake, realizing she had fallen asleep.
Her fellow knights scrambled out of the truck, legs shaking from the ride. Unfamiliar with its rhythmic movement as she was. Iverson pushed at her gently and whispered, “Let’s go.”
Alex nearly tripped when she stepped out of the truck, but Iverson caught her arm and she planted a foot on the ground. “Thanks.” Alex said and Iverson returned a sickly sweet smile. When Alex walked, her body swayed with every step, but she didn’t dare to fall in front of so many witnesses.
The scrap truck stopped near an overpass, the rally point where dozens upon dozens of knights had converged. Initiates were mixed among them as well, walking into the area on foot as more knights were ferried in on trucks. Vertibirds landed and a full squad of paladins in T-45 power armor disembarked.
With purpose, they walked towards a pavilion that had been erected in the center of the gathering. Which Alex knew was the forward Command Post, meant to organize the Brotherhood’s efforts against the super mutants. Knight Kaori ordered her squad to stay in place as she headed towards the pavilion to receive their orders and Iverson hovered closer to her side.
When he spoke, Alex could hear the eagerness dripping from his voice. “It’s amazing, I haven’t seen a gathering like this since Chicago. Maybe we’ll get a chance to see some action.”
Alex was almost certain of that, but she felt more worried than eager. Super mutants were marching up from the North, but they weren’t the usual stragglers that wandered through the wasteland. There were enough Brotherhood soldiers to form multiple task forces, ad-hoc platoons with the sole purpose of concentrating firepower to achieve a specific objective. Too much firepower to deal with mere stragglers, super mutants or otherwise.
Iverson chuckled and gestured to a group of armed civilians in a messy panoply of armor, but leaning towards no armor at all. The only uniformity among them were the cowboy hats many of them wore. “I like their hats. Been looking for one of those for a while now.”
Nearby, a knight spat on the ground. “Wasters.” He said, dismissively. “What the hell are those outsiders doing here?”
Alex frowned at the knight, whose seniority was marked by double chevrons on his pauldron, as well as the straight scars trailing around his bald, square head. Less like a knight and more of a dumb brute, he made Alex wonder how such a man could be given the responsibility of seniority. If local militias were gathering, then it was to lend their rifles to the Brotherhood. That much was obvious.
“They’re better off staying at home. Leave things to the professionals.” Iverson added, overly proud despite having been a knight for only a year. With few merits to show for it, like Alex herself.
“The militia wouldn’t be here if they weren’t summoned.” Alex said. “Which means someone, somewhere, thinks we need them.”
“Surely not.” Iverson said. “More guns are nice to have, but we don’t need those wasters.” Alex shrugged, but said nothing, hoping Iverson was right.
A paladin led a squad of knights away from the rally point, followed by two additional squads of initiates. The platoon walked west, into dense ruins. Other paladins led their platoons east, where there were patches of open ground cut by trenches.
When Knight Kaori returned, she introduced her squad to a paladin named Crispin, who approached her from behind. His T-45 power armor gleamed in the morning sun as he removed his helmet. While not as young as Michael, his smooth face had an easy confidence despite his youth. It bordered on arrogance, but that’s how most paladins were.
Paladin Crispin called for his task force to gather around for a debrief and two squads of initiates walked closer, their shiny helmets denoting their freshness as much as the initiate’s shields sewn onto their sleeves. They also carried ballistic rifles, which denoted their reserve status. Not important enough to be given standard laser rifles. Many of them were older than Alex had been when she first became a knight, which made her strangely proud, but she had to remind herself that she was born into the Brotherhood. With all the expectation, and privilege, such a thing entailed.
Once everyone gathered close, Paladin Crispin addressed his task force. While other units reinforced positions that stretched from east to west, stretching themselves thin, Crispin and his men were to reinforce a southern salient along highway 205. The bulk of Brotherhood forces in the area would be there, a juicy target that dared the super mutants to attack.
Their objective was to delay the enemy, attracting attention away from the Brotherhood’s other positions, which were thin enough to break through if the enemy was numerous or determined enough. The whole garrison at Gresham had been recalled, alongside militia that had been drafted, but they all needed time before they could further reinforce those positions.
As soon as Crispin finished his debrief, he warned the sergeants not to lag behind and began running down the highway. Kaori hurriedly formed her squad into a single file column and raced after him, with Alex and the rest of the squad trailing after her. The other sergeants followed behind them, their squads marching in two columns abreast.
The platoon made quick time down the highway, which had been cleared of abandoned vehicles, but remains of uncollected scrap soon littered the flanks of the road. Alex saw how far the Brotherhood’s Portland frontier extended, by the wrecks of vehicles that stood in their path.
A clear line from left to right, where their scavengers had stopped their efforts to clear the road. The platoon’s marching column fractured as they weaved between the vehicles that littered the road, slowing their march.
Crispin shouted back at his platoon, “Hurry the fuck up, the others are waiting on us.” He continued moving south, forcing his way past the obstacles in his path, pushing them aside where he could.
Alex tried her best to keep pace, and the platoon’s formation broke into pieces as they tried to catch up to Crispin, but many initiates lagged behind. She was close behind the running paladin when they were greeted by a paladin sergeant. Clad in distinctive Advanced Technical Armor, a chain and cloak hanging off one shoulder, he was a true Midwestern paladin.
“Crispin! What took you so long? If your new steel is slowing you down, it can always be removed.”
“Apologies, sir, but-“
“No excuses, join the line.” The Paladin sergeant pointed towards an open stretch of trenches.
Two paladins stood sentry there, but left when the platoon took up positions in the trenches. Alex felt sorry to see their backs as they headed towards the paladin sergeant. The platoon was positioned on the eastern flank of the highway, facing open ground. Their trench protruded from the road in a half-circle, the only cover to be found from that direction, not counting the vehicles that lay behind their lines. The same was true for the platoon positioned on the western flank of the highway.
The two platoons positioned along the width of the highway had the toughest fight ahead of them. Vehicles were being moved during the little time they had, but there was only a short gap between them and the cover the super mutants would undoubtedly use to assault their positions.
It’s why the paladin sergeant dispatched the paladins with the heavy weapons to reinforce them. Standing on anything that might support the weight of their armor, for an elevated view of the surrounding area.
A knight whispered to another knight beside him. “They say muties have a natural advantage when fighting other muties. Where do you think the auxiliaries are?”
“Do you mean Betty and her lot? I hope they stay well away. Don’t need any friendly fire.”
“They’re wearing Brotherhood colors aren’t they?”
“Aye, but those green bastards might turn traitor when they see other muties fighting against us.”
An initiate spoke up. “They’re probably too stupid to realize if they turned traitor. Maybe they’ll fall back on their instincts, like the riverlurks.”
“They’re close enough to animals, with their grunting and whining.” Another initiate added.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Alex was about to say something when she saw that most everyone around was in agreement. Despite offering their service in exchange for a place to call home, like so many others before them, Betty and her super mutant auxiliaries were still mistrusted. It seemed a sad thing, to give yourself to a cause and remain on the fringes.
Iverson chuckled and Alex frowned at him, a young knight privileged to have been born into the Brotherhood. Besides Michael, Iverson was always eager to prove himself. He should’ve understood what Betty was fighting for, but Alex supposed it was easier to go along with the popular sentiment. She was as guilty as he was, it’s why she kept her mouth shut.
✥✥✥
By the time the sun neared high noon, four platoon’s worth of Brotherhood soldiers had gathered on the highway, roughly 120 strong. The platoons on the flanks worked to deepen their trenches, which were dug too shallow to stand in comfortably. A common complaint levied against the Brotherhood’s sappers.
Alex looked back at Crispin, who stood silent with his fists on his waist. If he used his power armor to help, the trenches would’ve been dug faster. But such a thing was probably beneath a paladin’s dignity, too bad for them.
A man began shouting from the highway. “Friendlies! Those are our scouts!” Two knights ran up the highway, binoculars hanging prominently from their necks.
“Yeah, no shit. They’re human.” Someone muttered.
The scouts saluted the paladin sergeant, fists against their chests, and reported their findings. The sergeant nodded and dismissed the scouts, who walked somewhere in the rear. One of the scouts, a woman, seated herself on the roof of a large truck. She unslung her long-barreled laser rifle, complete with a recon scope, and rested it on her lap. Her partner, a much younger man that could’ve been Alex’s age, stood beside the woman. He peered through the binoculars while the woman sipped on a metal flask.
Alex peered down the highway, squinting her eyes, and shuddered when she saw green masses lumbering along the horizon. The paladin sergeant yelled at the platoons on the highway, giving the usual speech for them to steel their resolve. The sergeant gave another speech to the platoon on the western flank, before he made time to speak with Crispin’s platoon on the eastern flank, debriefing Crispin as much as he did the platoon as a whole.
The highway further south ran diagonally from north to southwest. With the super mutants following its length, the bulk of their number was arrayed against the Brotherhood’s positions in the south and west, but the paladin sergeant warned Crispin to remain vigilant. He had the easiest flank to manage and a clear view of the enemy’s path of approach. If his part of the line collapsed, surviving the battle would be the least of his worries.
Crispin didn’t hide the chagrin in his voice as he answered the sergeant, “We’ll hold against the savages just fine. You can count on us.”
The sergeant returned to his position in the center and Crispin muttered something as he walked over the platoon’s trenchline to stand in front, out of cover. In the distance, large figures lumbered forward. Covered in scrap metal to protect the defined mass of green flesh underneath, tough in its own right. Spaced between them were walking walls of layered steel.
“What are those?” Alex asked.
“Mantlets, mobile cover. Muties near Chicago used them sometimes, but I’m surprised the muties here use them too.”
Kaori cleared her throat and spoke. “They don’t usually show it, but they do have functioning brains in their thick skulls.”
A super mutant peeked out from the side of a mantlet, struggling to lift it as he trudged forward. Crispin fired his laser rifle and tagged the mutant’s shoulder, despite firing past the rifle’s effective range as stated in the Brotherhood’s training manuals. “What are you all waiting for?”
The platoon fired wildly in the distance. Most shots missed, fired by inexperienced initiates, but there was enough volume of fire that practically guaranteed that some would hit their targets. Alex ducked low as the super mutants returned fire, their rounds whizzing over her head while she continued firing her rifle. Laser fire erupted from the other platoons, joined by bursts of minigun fire.
The thundering noise made her ears ring and she struggled to think, but she corrected herself. Don’t think, just do. When her rifle clicked as she pulled the trigger, Alex removed the empty energy cell from the receiver and placed it into an empty pouch on the bandolier across her chest. She loaded a fresh energy cell into the receiver and continued firing, trying to land every shot.
Nearby, initiates fired frantically while Kaori and the knight sergeants called out to use their ammo sparingly, but the noise that echoed around the highway drowned out their voices. Alex herself could barely make out their words, but she understood enough. An initiate called out, having run out of ammo, helplessly looking around for help.
Knight Kaori climbed out of the trench, pulling two initiates with her, and they ran towards the paladin sergeant. When they returned, they each carried packs of ammunition. A sergeant grabbed the collar of an initiate and yelled, “Land your shots or I’ll have you scourged and expelled from the Brotherhood if we live through this!” The initiate nodded, face pale.
As the mantlets drew closer, slits opened up in their center, from which gun fire sprayed out. A knight was struck in the shoulder, between his chestplate and his pauldron. Alex focused her fire on the mutants firing from behind the mantlets, landing some shots and missing others. What mattered was that they didn’t feel too comfortable. If they wanted to harm her Brothers of Steel, they’d pay for it in blood.
Steel footsteps padded from behind and a paladin leapt over the trenches, armed with a minigun. They fired on the mantlets, the sheer intensity of minigun fire breaking through the mobile cover. Without which, the super mutants were forced to exchange fire while standing out in the open, though most were visibly shaken. Despite their meager intelligence, the mutants were smart enough to understand that they were fully exposed to enemy fire.
Other mutants charged forward with smaller mantlets front and center. Minigun fire broke through the mantlets, same as before, but they bought enough time for super mutants armed with bludgeons to reach the trenchline. They mobbed Crispin and the paladin with the minigun. They couldn’t bash through the thick steel of power armor, but effectively neutralized them as mutant hounds bounded forward.
An initiate fell back and screamed in terror as a mutant hound sunk its teeth into his shoulder. A knight pulled a knife and stabbed into the hounds skull, but was set upon by a different hound. Alex took a knee, trying to avoid the attention of the beasts, as she focused fire on any mutant hound that leapt into the trench.
Knight Kaori was wrestling with a hound, its jaws snapping at her chestplate. It thrashed side to side and Alex wasn’t sure she could hit the hound without hitting Kaori as well. When the hound jerked up, the tip of its muzzle hit the bottom of Kaori’s jaw and sent her reeling backwards. Alex seized the opening and fired on the beast before it could bite into her sergeant.
Alex began to make her way towards the fallen knight when a shadow loomed over her. The breath was knocked from her lungs as a mutant hound barreled into her side. It tried to bite into her neck, but she pushed the length of her rifle against the hound’s jaws. It snapped at her, but couldn’t chew through the metal.
The finer parts of her rifle were breaking audibly. When the hound bit into the energy cell embedded in the receiver, it popped with a flash. The hound yelped and backed away far enough for Alex to pull her knife free from her bandolier and plunge it into the hound’s eye.
The hound shrieked and thrashed until Iverson sent a few blasts from his rifle into the back of its head. It quivered as it died on top of her, bloody slobber leaking from its mouth and staining her coat, but she was unharmed. Iverson helped her push the hound to the side, its jaw dangling limp as it slumped over.
As soon as she was free, Alex crawled towards Knight Kaori. The fallen sergeant was muttering something, but it was completely incoherent. She was breathing normally, her pulse still beating firmly, but she was fully unconscious. Alex patted her bandolier for a stimpak, but she had forgotten to buy one at the commissary. She looked around for help, calling out for a stimpak, but nobody responded.
There was a dying initiate nearby, close to joining the dead initiates beside him. Crispin and the other paladin were still fending off their attackers, who seemed intent on mobbing the two paladins no matter the cost. A knight fell to his knee, blood dripping from his forehead and covering one eye as he scrambled back to his feet.
Even Iverson was preoccupied with defending their trench. He caught an energy cell someone tossed his way and placed it into the receiver of his rifle with effortless grace, but she knew he practiced the motion relentlessly for moments such as these. As soon as the energy cell entered the receiver, Iverson fired on the super mutant that charged his section of the trench without blinking. When he wasn’t coddling her like a child, Alex could admire the knight Iverson had become.
Another knight called out and pulled Alex to her feet, the senior knight with straight scars trailing across his bald, square head. “Stand and fight!” He demanded. “Victory is the only thing that will keep us alive!”
Alex tested her rifle, but it was busted beyond what she could repair in the field. She picked up a ballistic rifle from a dead initiate and scrounged ammo off his corpse, reloading the rifle quick enough. A mutant hound ran towards them, followed by a super mutant wielding a stop sign as an ax, but the knight fired several shots in quick succession. All hit their target and the hound tumbled forward as it died, but the super mutant shrugged off the laser fire. It hit the scrap metal strapped to his chest, presumably thick enough to withstand some amount of damage. Alex followed the knight’s lead and fired at the mutant, aiming for his exposed face. She landed several headshots that burst through the mutant’s skull.
“Nice shooting!” The knight said.
She shot at any hound that tried to force its way into their trench until none remained. With the threat of being overrun by the hounds eliminated, Alex found that fighting became easier. Other super mutants tried to charge the trenches, but they were larger and lacked the speed and ferocity of the mutant hounds.
Their charges ended with slaughter and, for a brief moment, the mutants lost heart. A mutant warlord, helmet plumed by a mop, pointed and yelled for his brethren to attack, but many were hesitant. This lull in the fighting allowed the platoon enough time to clear away the mutants attacking their paladins.
Crispin pointed at the warlord and yelled to the paladin beside him, who retrieved his minigun. The barrels were spinning before Crispin spoke, “Light that fucker up!”
“Ad Victoriam!” The paladin declared and ran forward as bullets sprayed from his minigun without end. The mutant warlord shook violently as his body turned into red paste, along with any other mutant unlucky enough to be standing nearby.
Crispin roared and ordered a charge. Seized by the heat of the moment, Alex pulled herself from the trench and charged forward, Iverson running beside her. The rest of the platoon followed eagerly behind, bloodlusted as soon as the super mutants fled the field.
“Stop! What the fuck are all of you doing? Hold your positions!” The paladin sergeant called out as he ran after them, managing to stop some, but not all.
Only the bestial shriek that echoed in the distance put an end to Crispin’s charge. From the horizon, a flock of crows flew towards the Brotherhood’s positions, only now attracted to the promise of carnage. The ground vibrated in a steady rhythm. Thump. Thump. Thump. Growing louder and louder. Movement flashed behind one of the buildings in the distance, before a mass of flesh burst through the concrete structure and took its place on the horizon.
“Behemoth!” Someone yelled, as if they didn’t all see the monstrous creature trudging towards them. The paladin sergeant ordered Crispin to return his platoon to their positions, so they could properly organize a retreat, but the platoon was already fleeing back to their trenchline. Regardless of anyone’s wishes.
Alex neared the trench when she heard someone shouting, “Incoming!” She turned to find a mass of concrete and rebar flying through the sky. It struck empty ground, but its momentum carried it into an unlucky knight, flattening him in a human shaped pancake. Alex dove into the trench, dragging Iverson with her, and the mass tumbled over the trench.
Dust sprayed Alex’s face and she coughed, waving a hand through the air. She blinked away tears and rubbed her eyes clear of debris. Iverson was laying beside her and she saw a hand move to his crotch, which he fondled. “What are you doing?” Alex asked blankly, too emotionally exhausted by the near death experience to be creeped out by the sight of Iverson touching himself.
“I’m checking if I pissed myself.”
“Oh.” Alex was pleasantly surprised that his fondling action had nothing to do with her. “Did you?”
“Not yet.”